This is a shot of downtown Seattle, as seen from the observation deck of the Space Needle. I'm standing about 600 feet up in the air, behind a plexiglass barrier, looking southeast. (Mount Rainier is in the background, but it wasn't out that day. You'll just have to imagine it.) Just out of curiosity, since I'm not going to be going back up there any time soon to try this again, does anybody know what causes those weird diagonal lines in the image? I shot this hand-held, zoom, behind the afore-mentioned plexiglass window. (I assure you, those lines aren't there in real life!) :) The lines seem to be most noticeable on the building that's just to the left of the Westin (the round building to the left of center), and on the Darth Vader building (that's the black one on the right with the 45-degree-angle roof). I can see the lines through the whole image, but they really jump out on those two buildings, if you need a reference point in order to see what I'm talking about. The building I like best is the Washington Mutual Tower, which is the art deco-style building on the right. Built in 1988, it's 55 stories tall, and one of my favorite people in the whole world works there! (Hi David! *waves*) The square black building just to the left of the WAMU Tower was built in 1969, just a few years after the Space Needle was completed. We call that building "The Box The Space Needle Came In." It's otherwise known as the Seattle First National Bank Building. I think it's now called the Fourth Avenue Plaza or something. At 50 stories, it was the tallest building in Seattle until 1985. In 1985, the Columbia Center was built. (It was originally called the Sea-1st Building, then the Bank of America Building ... then something else ... a bit of an identity crisis, I guess.) Anyway, it's 76 stories tall, the tallest in Seattle, and it's the big black one to the right of center. (You can tell which one it is, 'cause it's the tallest!) When I was a kid, the Smith Tower was the tallest building West of the Mississippi. Now you can barely see it, peeking out to the right of the Washington Mutual Tower. (It has a slanted top, and appears to be a bit more than half the height of the WAMU.) It's 35 stories, and for years and years it flew a giant fish-shaped wind sock from the pole atop the building. You can see the Monorail tracks ... they're in that green swath at the bottom of the image, left of center. There are two of them because there are two trains. The trains only run on one rail each. MONOrail, you see? I could go on and on ... I've lived here all my life, and have seen a lot of changes. I hope you've enjoyed this mini-tour of my favorite city!